The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1887-04-06
'cHow does she stand p,


That was all right; that was the course
Durham had put her on.
He went to the paddle-box and signaled
the engine to stop. Then he called a man
and had the lead thrown. "Twenty-four.
Plenty Of water" thought Durham, and
started the engine. He then went to the
Captains cabin and knocked. The Cap
tain did not hear the first time, and be
knocked again.
''Who's thereg"
'"The mate"
The Captain opened a port near the
head Of his berth, and asked him what
the matter was. Dunham reported. The
Captain told him it was all right; that it
was foggy, and the roar of the surf with
such a sea on and no wind could be
heard ten miles. Durham rather thought
so, too, and went away. During this
parley, and while the mate stopped few
minutes to look after things below, the
ship had made more than two miles head
way. By the time Durham got on deck
again the roar of the surf was frightful.
He fairly screamed at the helmsman.
"Abbottl'
Gay, ay, sir"
"How's her head?"
"Sou' by east, sir"
Amazingl Dunham ran to the paddle
box and jerked a signal. The engine
stopped. Then he rushed to the Cap
tain's door and called him out in the
name of the gods. Both flew on deck.
There was no mistake about it; there
were the breakers not half mile ahead.
judging by the sound, laundering and
boiling against the shore. Dunham had
almost run the ships head on shore, and
that, too, when she was holding pre-
cisely the same course by compass that
he had put her on fifty times before.
The Captain roared: "Whats her
course?"
''Sou' by east, sir"
''Put her sou'west."
"Sou'west, sir" echoed the man at the
wheel, and the wheel spun round and the
chains ratified. The Captain rushed TO
the signal-bell and started the engine,
and got the ship under good steering
headway. Scarcely had she started on
her new course when a scraping sound
was heard and felt-then bump, bump,
bump, as though the ship had been lifted
up and set down hard three times; then
a crash that sent the captain and mate on
their faces, and brought the smoke
stacks crashing through the decks, and
and snapped off the topmasts like pipe
stems. The ship had struck a sunken
rock, and began to fill at once.
Who got to shore, and how they got to
shore, matters not. 1t is the same old
story. The news spread on wings. Men
came and dragged the swollen cOrpses of
their friends out of the surf, or dug them
out ofthe sand, or identified them in the
shed, or paced the beach day after day,
looking out on the remorseless sea that
sullenly clung to its dead.
The captain and the wheelman, Alb
bott, went to Portland together-Dun-
ham they never found-and there they
talked over the strange affair and ex-
hausted all their ingenuity in vain to ac-
count for the loss of the ship when on
the right course on a still night. When
the wrecking-tug was ready, they went
out to the wreck. 1t still hung on the
rocks. The bows were high out of water.
The two men climbed up into the wheel
house. They unscrewed the compasss-box
from its fastening and brought it on
shore. There they opened it, and lifted
up the card and needle, and there lay the
little instrument of death-a broken
knife-blade.
The handle and the rest of the blade
were in little Joey Dunham's pocket. He
had tried to pry out the glass; to see what
made the card swing around so when he
held his knife by it, and in doing so had
broken the blade. He concealed his
mischief and stole away. -Argonaut.